Machine for separating a sheet from a sheet pile

ABSTRACT

A method and a machine for separating a sheet from a bale of sheets of paper pulp and the like while using a separation body having wedge-shaped configuration in side projection, the said body being adapted to penetrate into the bale while cutting off one sheet therefrom. The bale of sheets is supported during the separation process by two sets of arms which are movable on continuously driven chains into alternative contact with the bale.

United States Patent N ordstrand 1451 June 27, 1972 MACHINE FOR SEPARATING A SHEET FROM A SHEET PILE Leii Roland Nordstrand, Malmo, Sweden AB, Malmo,

Inventor:

Kamas Kvarnmaskiner Sweden Filed: Sept. 21, 1970 Appl. No; 73,972

Assignee:

Foreign Application Priority Data Sept. 23, 1969 Sweden ..13047/69 us. 01.. ..2 l4/8.5 A, 214/8.5 ss, 221/16 1111.01 ..B65g 59/00 Field of Search ..2l4/8.5 R, 8.5 A, 8.5 c, 152,

214/8.5 SS; 221/16, l9 23 References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,391,806 7/1968 Geis ..2l4/8.5C

Primary Examiner-Robert G. Sheridan Assistant Examiner-George F. Abraham Attorney-Kane, Dalsimer, Kane, Sullivan and Kurucz 57 ABSTRACT A method and a machine for separating a sheet from a bale of sheets of paper pulp and the like while using a separation body having wedge-shaped configuration in side projection, the said body being adapted to penetrate into the bale while cutting off one sheet therefrom. The bale of sheets is supported during the separation process by two sets of arms which are movable on continuously driven chains into alternative contact with the bale.

4 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures MACHINE FOR SEPARATING A SHEET FROM A SHEET FILE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention concerns a method for continuously separating a sheet from a pile or bale of sheets of paper pulp, paper or paste-board. The method is primarily intended for application in machines for dry-defibration of paper pulp and for machines concerned with pretreatment of paper pulp for incorporation in chemical processes such as the manufacture of rayon.

The problem involved in mechanical transfer of paper pulp in the shape of a bale to a continuously advanced string or web may be divided into several difficult sub-problems, particularly as it is desirable to provide a machine assembly which is small in volume and also economical and which is suitable as a pretreatment machine in the manufacture of for instance compresses for baby napkins and similar products. The present invention concerns a method of separating, by means of a body of essentially wedge-shaped configuration in side projection one or several sheets from the bale and of transferring said sheets onto a conveyor means to be fed to a rotating cutter disintegrating the sheets into smaller pieces. As bales of paper pulp are at present often highly compressed and compacted and the sheets thus adhere strongly to each other, and as folded or deformed sheets often are present within the bales great demands have to be made on the construction of the mechanism intended for the separation of the sheets.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The characterizing feature of the invention is that the method comprises supporting the bale through resting at least one marginal portion of the free, flat surface of the sheet closest to the wedge-shaped body and the top center of said surface in contact with one or several supporting arms which are movable relatively said sheet surface, as well as in contact with an abutment means, and penetrating the wedge-shaped body while keeping the preferably rounded edge of said body at a preferably adjustable distance from the abutment means, down into the sheet bale between the sheets thereof while the abutment means is simultaneously swung away, whereby a predetermined number of sheets are separated from the sheet bale.

A primary desideratum is also that the flow of finely disintegrated pulp discharged from the cutter is well metered and thus also completely continuous. This latter requirement has been solved in a machine in accordance with the invention in that the speed at which the pulp sheets are fed to the cutter is controlled by the flow of current supplied to the electric motor operating the cutter such that upon an increase of load on the motor, the sheet feeder speed is reduced, and vice versa. The discharge of disintegrated pulp is thus kept reasonably constant, even if the sheets fed to the cutter may vary in thickness, as might be the case when folded or partly deformed sheets are fed into the apparatus.

The invention also concerns a machine for performing the method in accordance with the invention.

The invention will be elucidated upon reading of the following description, wherein reference is made to the accompanying, partly diagrammatical drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate a vertical section through the machine in accordance with the invention during the separation of one sheet from the bale,

FIG. 3 is a side view of the knife incorporated in the separating mechanism of the machine,

FIG. 4 is an end view of said knife,

FIG. 5 is a plan view of said knife, and

FIG. 6 shows the machine from the front.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Before describing the invention in detail it is considered appropriate to first define the terms used in the following description and the appended claims, particularly the denominations flat surface of the sheet and the edges of the sheet in a bale. By the flat surface of a sheet is understood its two largest and mutually parallel faces. By its edges consequently is understood the remaining four sides. There is, however, one type of paper pulp bales which deviates from the common one, i.e. pulp bales, consisting of thicker blocks, of compressed pulp, often having a thickness of 5 to 10 cm and being assembled to form bales of conventional external measures. This type of bale is used in connection with chip drying of pulp and since the blocks are separable from each other, this type of bale may also be handled by the machine in accordance with the present invention.

The machine as illustrated on the drawings consists of a feeder belt 2 for advancing a bale 1 consisting of sheets, a separating mechanism 3, a conveyor 4 provided with follower rims 5 and feeder rolls 6, 7, and a rotating cutter 9 which is provided with rotating blades 8 and disposed in a rotor casing 11 having an outlet opening 10 for discharge of defibrated pulp.

The separating mechanism 3 comprises a knife 12 the shape of which is illustrated in detail in FIGS. 3-5. The knife consists of sheet metal having a thickness of 2.5 mm and it presents a rounded edge 13 (FIG. 5) and curved indentations l4, 15. The entire sheet metal knife is bent as illustrated in FIG. 4 such that it receives the wedge-shaped configuration in lateral view illustrated in FIG. 3. The knife is axially displaceable by means of a hydraulically operated piston and cylinder unit 16. The separating mechanism 3 also comprises an abutment means 17 which is arranged to cooperate with the knife and is movable so as to be swung away preferably against the action of a spring (not shown), the bale 1 advanced on the feeder belt 2 being adapted to rest by means of its surface against said abutment means close to the upper edge. The abutment means 17 is situated midway between two continuous chains 18, 19 which are driven synchronously over pulleys 20, 21 in mutually opposite directions as illustrated by the arrows in FIG. 6). On the chains 18, 19 are mounted sets of supporting arms 22 and 23. The chains 18, 19 are operated in such a way that the sheet bale 1 alternately rests against the set of supporting arms 23 and the set of supporting arms 22.

Reference numeral 24 designates a rotatably mounted roll supporting from underneath the front edge of the sheet bale l.

The machine operates in the following manner. The pulp bales l are deposited on the feeder belt 2 which inclines slightly downwards towards the separating mechanism 3 and such that the front side of the bale rests against the supporting arms 23 and against the abutment means 17. In this position the knife 12 starts its downward movement while cutting by means of its edge 13 down through the bale. The right-angle space between knife 12 and abutment means 17 is so adjusted that one single sheet 1 is being separated from the bale l by means of the knife 12. If a larger number of sheets is to be separated from the bale, the said space is made accordingly wider. When the knife 12 has penetrated about 10-100 mm down into the bale, the abutment means 17 starts moving outwards (to the right with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2). The knife continues its downward cutting movement between the bale sheets whereby the sheet (or sheets) being separated is (or are) being bent forwards in view of the wedge-shaped lateral profile of the knife. At the same time, the chains 18, 19 start moving downwards, displacing the arm sets 23 downwards and bringing the arm sets 22 to engage in the gap formed by the knife 12 at the upper portion of the bale 1 (FIG. 2) between the latter and the sheet 1' being separated therefrom. The chains are being moved until the sets of arms 22 assume the position which the other sets of arms 23 just assumed, and thus they now form supports for the sheet bale 1. Simultaneously, the knife 12 returns to its upper position (original position) above the upper bale edge, and the abutment means 17 is again swung inwards towards the bale edge. The sheet 1', when separated, falls down on the conveyor belt 4 and is being advanced by the follower rims 5 and the advancing rolls 6, 7 up to the cutter 9. The blades 8 reduce the pulp sheet 1' into smaller pieces and the mass, thus finely disintegrated, is discharged from the cutter casing 11 through the outlet opening 10. This separating procedure may be repeated by means of a device triggering off the movement of the mechanism when the pulp sheet 1, just separated from the bale, is at an appropriate point on the belt 4, thus ensuring that a continuous row of pulp sheets are fed to the cutter 9.

Separation of sheet 1 is facilitated through cooperation of the abutment means 17 and the knife 12, which latter means, owing to its arcuate shape (wedge-shaped configuration in side projection) bends the upper edge of the sheet 1 outwards in such a way that it becomes possible for the second sets of supporting arms 22 on the chains 18, 19 to engage in the gap formed between the sheet to be separated and the rest of the sheet bale l. The supporting arms 22, 23 preferably have their front edges, as seen in the direction of movement, sharpened to a cutting edge such that they are able to cut through folded sheets which may be present in pulp sheet bales.

A machine realizing the method in accordance with the invention may be incorporated in a hammer mill or the like wherein the pulp material discharged through the outlet opening may be further reduced. Such an arrangement is particularly suitable for production lines adapted for the manu facture of liquid-absorbing compresses for use in baby napkins, sanitary towels, protection pads for beds of long-tenn patients and like uses.

The description given above is a concrete example of one way of applying the method in accordance with the invention but it is obvious that the method may be varied within the scope of the appended claims. Also the machine may be constructively modified within the scope of the invention. 7

I claim:

1. A machine for separating one or several sheets from a bale of paper, pasteboard or paper pulp, including in combination underlying support means for supporting the bale by receipt of the sheet edges of said bale thereon, a first set of support arms for supporting the bale through resting thereon at least one marginal portion of the free, flat surface of the end sheet in said bale, said arms being movable across and beyond said sheet surface, abutment means initially in the plane of said support arms and yieldingly urged in contact with said bale, a body of wedge-shaped configuration in side projection supported above said bale, piston means for moving said body down into the bale between certain end sheets thereof and forcing said abutment means and the sheets between the body and abutment means from said bale as said arms are moved across the end surface of the bale whereby a predetermined number of sheets are separated from said bale.

2. A machine in accordance with claim 1 in which a second set of movable support arms and means for for moving said second set of arms are provided whereby said arms can be inserted in a gap being formed by the wedge-shaped body between said sheets under separation and the rest of the bale of sheets for facilitating separation of said sheet.

3. A machine according to claim 2, in which the means for moving said first and second set of support arms include continuously driven chains arranged such that one set of arms at a time is insertable from each side of the bale into the gap being formed during separation of one sheet from the rest of the bale of sheets, while the second set of supporting arms is being swung away by said chains out of contact with the said bale.

4. A machine according to claim 1, wherein said body consists of sheet metal bent into channel-shape and presenting a preferably rounded edge at the central portion of one end of said body, and wherein curved recesses extend from said edge outwards towards the sif ie p ort i ons of the said body. 

1. A machine for separating one or several sheets from a bale of paper, pasteboard or paper pulp, including in combination underlying support means for supporting the bale by receipt of the sheet edges of said bale thereon, a first set of support arms for supporting the bale through resting thereon at least one marginal portion of the free, flat surface of the end sheet in said bale, said arms being movable across and beyond said sheet surface, abutment means initially in the plane of said support arms and yieldingly urged in contact with said bale, a body of wedge-shaped configuration in side projection supported above said bale, piston means for moving said body down into the bale between certain end sheets thereof and forcing said abutment means and the sheets between the body and abutment means from said bale as said arms are moved across the end surface of the bale whereby a predetermined number of sheets are separated from said bale.
 2. A machine in accordance with claim 1 in which a second set of movable support arms and means for for moving said second set of arms are provided whereby said arms can be inserted in a gap being formed by the wedge-shaped body between said sheets under separation and the rest of the bale of sheets for facilitating separation of said sheet.
 3. A machine according to claim 2, in which the means for moving said first and second set of support arms include continuously driven chains arranged such that one set of arms at a time is insertable from each side of the bale into the gap being formed during separation of one sheet from the rest of the bale of sheets, while the second set of supporting arms is being swung away by said chains out of contact with the said bale.
 4. A machine according to claim 1, wherein said body consists of sheet metal bent into channel-shape and presenting a preferably rounded edge at the central portion of one end of said body, and wherein curved recesses extend from said edge outwards towards the side portions of the said body. 